3,183 first-hand accounts of flood events in Kentucky, ranked by impact. Each is a NOAA-written narrative of the moment.
An unseasonably warm and moist air mass was in place across the region during the morning hours of March 1st. Showers and thunderstorms developed across the Ohio Valley during the early morning hours as a strong low pressure system lifted northeast into the Great Lakes region.
Read the full account →Numerous thunderstorms developed this morning and early afternoon. Training and repeated rounds of rainfall over the same areas led to many reports of flash flooding across portions of Perry, Pike, and Floyd Counties.
Read the full account →Warm and humid conditions developed across much of the lower Ohio Valley during the last week of May 2017. A complex of storm systems passed through the region, sparking widespread showers and thunderstorms.
Read the full account →A prolonged line of thunderstorms developed on the evening of July 22nd near the Ohio River, slowly propagating southward late in the evening and after midnight into the 23rd.
Read the full account →Beginning on February 3rd, numerous rounds of rainfall began to impact eastern Kentucky. This continued through February 7th, highlighted by heavy rainfall from the evening of February 5th through the first half of February 6th.
Read the full account →A stationary frontal boundary was located generally west to east across central and eastern Kentucky. Decent warm air and moisture advection was present south of the boundary, and provided the ingredients necessary to produce low centroid high precipitating showers and storms…
Read the full account →Heavy rainfall in March set the stage for major flooding when record-setting rains fell in April and May. At Paducah, 15.91 inches of rain fell in April, which was 10.96 inches above normal.
Read the full account →Severe thunderstorms downed trees and powerlines, while also causing damage to some buildings and homes across McCreary County during the late evening hours of March 12th.||One of these storms produced an EF-1 tornado just north of downtown Whitley City.
Read the full account →Deep moisture anchored across east Kentucky, combined with a stalled frontal boundary, then a cold front, led to several rounds of heavy rain from the evening of September 12th through the early afternoon hours on September 13th.
Read the full account →Heavy rainfall occurred across eastern Kentucky on December 16th, following previous rounds of rainfall. Thus, soils were saturated prior to the arrival of an additional 2-3 inches of rain. The heavier rain amounts and associated flooding impacts occurred west of U.S.
Read the full account →Clusters of thunderstorms formed over central Kentucky and then pushed eastward into east Kentucky during the morning hours of April 17th. The thunderstorms produced isolated wind damage early in the morning in Letcher County, but the bigger impacts were from flash flooding…
Read the full account →An outbreak of supercells with large hail and isolated tornadoes affected western Kentucky during the afternoon and early evening. The initial round of thunderstorms occurred early in the afternoon over northwest Kentucky.
Read the full account →Loosely organized clusters of thunderstorms produced isolated flash flooding, along with isolated damaging winds and hail. A mesoscale vorticity center from earlier thunderstorms moved eastward across southern Missouri during the afternoon.
Read the full account →Historic flooding occurred along the Green River as a result of widespread rainfall between 5 and 10 inches across central and western Kentucky. Virtually the entire town of Rumsey was evacuated before it was inundated by the Green River.
Read the full account →A strong southerly flow, ahead of a cold front, transported very moist air through Tennessee and Kentucky. Surface dew points were in the mid and upper 60s. Wave after wave in the mid and upper levels helped trigger widespread showers, with embedded thunderstorms.
Read the full account →Major flash flooding occurred from the evening of July 6 through the early morning of July 7. A slow-moving thunderstorm complex backed slowly southwestward across western Kentucky and southern Illinois.
Read the full account →Moderate to major river flooding developed during the month. After a wet January, the active weather pattern continued into February. Frequent moderate to heavy rain events continued pushing not only the monthly and seasonal precipitation totals higher but also the rivers.
Read the full account →Moderate to major river flooding developed during the month. After a wet January, the active weather pattern continued into February. Frequent moderate to heavy rain events continued pushing not only the monthly and seasonal precipitation totals higher but also the rivers.
Read the full account →Moderate to major river flooding developed during the month. After a wet January, the active weather pattern continued into February. Frequent moderate to heavy rain events continued pushing not only the monthly and seasonal precipitation totals higher but also the rivers.
Read the full account →Moderate to major river flooding developed during the month. After a wet January, the active weather pattern continued into February. Frequent moderate to heavy rain events continued pushing not only the monthly and seasonal precipitation totals higher but also the rivers.
Read the full account →December 16, 2019, a flood watch was in place for areas of central Kentucky as widespread rainfall was expected to continue across the region.
Read the full account →A strong cold front approached eastern Kentucky on December 29th, bringing widespread rainfall, particularly from the Bluegrass to Lake Cumberland regions.
Read the full account →Heavy rainfall occurred across eastern Kentucky on December 16th, following previous rounds of rainfall. Thus, soils were saturated prior to the arrival of an additional 2-3 inches of rain. The heavier rain amounts and associated flooding impacts occurred west of U.S.
Read the full account →Periods of rain moved across eastern Kentucky from the afternoon hours of Friday February 26th through the morning of Monday March 1st. By the time the event was over, 4 inches or more of rain had accumulated over parts of eastern Kentucky and led to moderate river flooding on…
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